If I may, I'd like to recommend a book, 'The Unconquered', by Scott Wallace. It is a combination adventure story and backgrounder on the attempts of the Brazilian government to come to terms with the aboriginal question. Wallace points out that the government has tried to protect aboriginal peoples throughout most of the past century, but because of few police resources relative to territory, rampant corruption and greed, the incursion of drug smugglers and loggers from surrounding porous borders, and disease this has been a futile effort. They tried settling tribes into safe zones (reservations) but the mere fact of contact introduced diseases which annihilated the populations. Wallace examines the latest attempt which is to keep a large zone of territory clear of outsiders in the hope that whatever tribes are left can continue as before. However, that is problematic as these tribes occupy lands with resources that have been already plundered in the rest of the Amazonian basin.
Another book worth a look, if you have read Charles Mann's '1491', is his latest: '1493'. Mann traces the impact of the Europeans on the Americas to the impact of the Americas on the world. Cheers, Ed Davey From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of michael gurstein Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2012 10:23 AM To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION' Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: Tsolakoglou (reflections on the crisisin Greece) Ray, I'm not sure what specifically you are referring to but yes from what I could see, genocide parallel to what was happening in the US/Canada in the 19th century was happening in Brazil in the early part of the 20th century. The government has set aside reserves for various groups of Indios (the term that is in general use including by the Indios themselves) but those groups are in relatively (or extremely) remote areas and the groups themselves are not large. There is a significant government bureaucracy in place to manage/protect those reserves but as per the US/Canada in the latter part of the 1800's in many cases they aren't all that effective and are often corrupt or indifferent. The resource conflicts are still very active and current and there don't appear to be very effective measures in place to manage/adjudicate these (the kinds of measures that Harper and his gang are currently attempting to undermine in the Canadian context but that have worked to some degree in Canada over the last 20 or 30 years). The vast bulk of the population of Amazonia are Cabolcos who are effectively indigenous by their appearance but they have lost their language and are now it would appear to be separate cultural group -- in many instances living essentially subsistence lives on the various tributaries of the Amazon. They don't have reserves but they do seem to have some sort of traditional rights to the land although this is often disputed when there is competition for resources. M -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ray Harrell Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2012 11:09 AM To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION' Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: Tsolakoglou (reflections on the crisisin Greece) Are you saying genocide is taken for granted? REH From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of michael gurstein Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2012 9:33 AM To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION' Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: Tsolakoglou (reflections on the crisis in Greece) I don't really have an "insider" view but I did have a chance to observe and discuss with a limited range of people. What I was struck by was the immensity of the region--it probably represents one third or more of the land mass of South America--including bits of 8 countries although with the majority in Brazil (but Brazil itself is huge). What this means is that there is a lot of room for a lot of different kinds of interactions, developments, conflicts etc.etc. What we see/hear of are the most egregious/outrageous ones but there is a vast amount of development happening without such conflcts on a day to day basis and criticisms from folks like us is rather like telling the Chinese that they shouldn't have cars while continuing to have two or more in every N Am driveway. My overall sense is that while there are many problems at many levels in Brazil the current government is working quite actively to ensure some form of responsible and broadly advantageous development--I'ld trust these folks a lot further than I would trust Harper and his gang in recognizing and acting in support of the public good even including the global public good. I was also struck by the diversity of the region--we know about the biological diversity but there is also the social/economic/cultural diverstiy. Roughly 2 million people live in the Brazilian Amazon at the moment. There are huge pressures from a range of directions. There is the immediate conflicts between traditional settlers (most of whom are Cabolcos (mixed Indians and whites)) with a much smaller scattering of "pure" (cultural) Indios for whom formal accommodation has been made (reserves) by the Federal government (which is increasingly active and effective in all spheres including things like environmental protectiion... But there are also national pressures--for mega project resource extraction/utilization for example around hydro electricity where the resistance is rather like say the resistance there is to such developments in BC. One thing that did strike me was the recentness of a lot of the history concerning the frontier settlements--I visited an area (not in the Amazon) abourt 400 kms West of Sao Paulo where the settlement was done in the 1920's and even more recently--including the physical displacement (and massacre) of the native Indian population. Directly parallel to what occurred say in Saskatchewan about 100 years earlier... So things are still somewhat in flux and a bit raw since there are those now alive who were directly implicated or at least whose parents were implicated. M . -----Original Message----- From: Arthur Cordell [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2012 10:13 AM To: 'michael gurstein'; 'Keith Hudson'; 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION' Subject: RE: [Futurework] FW: Tsolakoglou (reflections on the crisis in Greece) Mike, What’s the inside view on what all this development might mean for broader environmental considerations. arthur From: michael gurstein [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 11:54 PM To: 'Arthur Cordell'; 'Keith Hudson'; 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION' Subject: RE: [Futurework] FW: Tsolakoglou (reflections on the crisis in Greece) A/the problem would appear to be that the Eurozonians are too many steps removed by bureaucracy, age, region, wealth, ideology, culture, nationality etc. from the pain on the ground. M (still on the ground now in north eastern Brazil which is in an amazing process of self-transformation--probably the only really functioning social democracy left in the world and a light among nations--bringing millions out of poverty and vitalizing 200,000,000 people in the process. -----Original Message----- From: Arthur Cordell [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2012 11:01 AM To: 'Keith Hudson'; 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION'; 'michael gurstein' Subject: RE: [Futurework] FW: Tsolakoglou (reflections on the crisis in Greece) Something will happen. Hard to predict. Equally hard to predict that this trend will continue without opposition, either organized or chaotic. Arthur From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2012 9:44 AM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION; michael gurstein Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: Tsolakoglou (reflections on the crisis in Greece) It's a Greek Tragedy far more poignant than anything Sophocles & Co ever could have written. I cannot imagine that there has ever been a civilization in human history in which, year after year, young people have accumulated with no occupation, and no hope of it either for years to come. In Greece and Spain, unemployment of 15-24 year-olds is now over 50% -- and growing -- and in Portugal, Italy and Belgium it's over 30% -- and growing. The intransigence of the Eurozone politicians and bueaucrats is beyond description. Keith At 10:12 08/04/2012, Mike wrote: -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [ mailto:[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> ] On Behalf Of Sid Shniad Sent: Friday, April 06, 2012 3:42 PM Subject: Tsolakoglou (reflections on the crisis in Greece) * http://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/tsolakoglou/ <http://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/tsolakoglou/> Tsolakoglou by Michael Robert * I know many have already commented on what happened last week outside the Greek parliament building in Athens. But it’s difficult not to exprxpress a feeling of anguish and anger together. A cash-strapped Greek pensioner shot and killed himself outside parliament in Athens on Wednesday. Dimitris Christoulas was a retired chemist, with a wife and a daughter, who had sold his pharmacy in 1994. In a suicide note found by police, he said: *“This Tsolakoglou government has annnnihilated all traces for my survival, which was based on a very dignified pension that I alone paid for 35 years with no help from the state. If one Greek had taken a Kalashnikov into his hands, I might have followed him and done the same but because I am of an age that makes it impossible for me to take strong action on my own, I see no other solution than this dignified end to my life, so I don’t find myself fishing through garbage cans for my my sustenance.â€Â* Tsolakoglou is a reference to the wwartime Nazi collaborationist Greek government. George Tsolakoglou was a Greek military officer who was appointed by the Germans in 1941 as Greek prime minister. Mr Christoulas correctly identified the nature of the current banker-led Greek government that has agreed to a crippling destruction of Greek living standards, public services and jobs in order to bail out Greece’s creditors, EurEurope’s banks, insurance companies and hedge funds Ãs â€â€œ and to lie down before the neoliberal policies off the dreaded Troika (the EU Commission, the ECB and the IMF). In his last statement to the world, Mr Christoulas went on: “*I believe that young people with no fututure will one day take up and hang this country’s tr traitors in arms in Syntagma Square just as the Italians hanged Mussolini in 1945.â€Â* Unfortunately, Mr Chrisstoulas’ act is not an isolated one. The suicide re rate in Greece used to be the lowest in Europe but it has soared during the crisis. The latest data shows suicides jumped 18% in 2010 from the previous year as rising unemployment, higher taxes and shrinking wages drove ordinary Greeks to despair. Last year, the number of suicides in Athens alone jumped over 25% from a year ago. *“T“This is the point to which they’ve brought us. Do to they really expect a pensioner to live on 300 euros?â€ÂÂ* asked 54-year old Maria Parashou, who rushed to the square to pay her respects after reading about the suicide. *“They’ve cut our salaries, they’ve’ve humiliated us. I have one daughter who is unemployed and my husband has lost half of his income, but I wonâ€â„„¢t allow myself to lose hope.â€Â* I remind you of a previous post (*Greece: a Sisyphean task*, 13 February 2012) that repeated what Greece’s top bishop said ab about the state of Greek society under the jackboot of the Troika and the collaborationists. Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece sent a letter to the banker prime minister Lucas Papademos saying that *“the phenomenenon of the homeless and the famished, a reminder of WWII conditions, has taken the dimensions of a nightmare,â€ÂÂ* adding that *“the homeless increase by the thoususands everyday, while small and medium-sized enterprises are forced to go out of business. Young people, the country’s best minds, choose to emigrate, while our fathathers are unable to live after the dramatic cuts in pensions. Family men, particularly the poorest, those with many children, wage earners, are in despair due to repeated wage cuts and unbearable new taxes. The unprecedented tolerance of the Greek people is being exhausted, rage pushes fear aside and the risk of social upheaval cannot be ignored anymore by those who are in the position to give orders and those who execute their lethal recipes.â€Â * HHe went on: *“in these difficult and undoubtedly, crcrucial times, we should realise that every Greek home is plagued by insecurity, despair and depression, which unfortunately, have caused, and sadly enough, continues to cause the suicides of those unable to bear the ordeal of their families and the pain of their children.â€Â * Eleections are about to be announced after Easter. The date is likely to be 6 May. The two main collaborationist parties, the conservative New Democracy and the laughingly named ‘socialist’ PASOK are desperately tryin trying to drum up enough votes to keep the bankers government in office. Given that they will get most of the TV time and have the overwhelming backing of the main newspapers, they may yet succeed. That’s partly because the he anti-austerity parties, although doing well in the polls, are hopelessly divided and refusing to work with each other. The horrible irony that proves Mr Christoulas so right is that whatever the pro-austerity coalition does, it will not be able to meet the draconian demands of the Troika. The Greek capitalist economy is diving at about 6% yoy and has contracted by about 16-20% since its peak. Unemployment is accelerating towards a 24% rate, with youth unemployment heading towards a staggering 60%. Those who can leave the country are doing so. There just won’t be enough to squeeze out of the Greek people to po pay the demands of the Troika. The government will fail to meet the fiscal and spending targets and then the Euro leaders will have to decide whether yet another ‘babailout package’ must be formulated, with yet more ce conditions or whether they will decide to ‘let Greecece loose’. The Euro leaders do not want to do the he latter because of the ‘contagion’ effects thcts throughout Europe’s financial markets that would lealead to Portugal and Ireland also failing and more important onto Spain and Italy, which are also struggling under the heel of austerity. So the leaders may opt for another package â€â€œ PM Papademos and friend of neoliberal eeconomist Mario Monti in Italy, has already hinted that it may be necessary. The May elections are the next twist in the Greek tragedy, which has already spilt the blood of many. _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com <http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/>
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